What services do we really get for all the taxes we pay? A driver’s license-don’t we pay for that? A bridge or tunnel, don’t we pay a toll? The post office, we still pay for shipping and postage. Now we have many republicans saying that a pubic option should not be available. To me a public option should be the only option and from there you get to choose your doctor. Under a system like this the good doctors would thrive and the terrible doctors would go away. The patients could rate the doctor and the information would be available to the public in regional or central databases.
I honestly do not see a need for insurance companies, having a third person in the doctors’ office often impacts the kind of care one receives and an unnecessary stress on the patient. Often we are wondering is the insurance going to cover this or how about when the insurance company screws up the paper work. I remember once I ran into a dentist office, a place I had been many times before, with an abscessed tooth. Well after the x-ray and waiting for the doctor to start the procedure of removing the tooth he came in and told me that my insurance was cancelled and he could not remove the tooth. Yes he made me get out of the chair and leave his office. On top of it he was annoyed that he had already taken the x-rays and questioned me about payment for them. Why, was my insurance cancelled? A misplaced form.
The free market is good for electronics and clothing, but not our healthcare. I consider practicing medicine to be like teaching; you get into the profession because you want to help people, not get rich. I am not saying doctors shouldn't have a decent life, but why should their expectations be to live extravagantly.
I also agree with Obama, most diseases are lifestyle based so there absolutely needs to be a focus on preventive medicine. Gym memberships and nutritionists should be covered by our healthcare system. If you take yoga or some sort of de-stressor then that should be covered. Stress is the number one killer, the source of many diseases. We also need to talk about our food and agriculture markets, the contaminants that are used when growing and processing our foods. There has to be a way to bring down the cost of organic foods, maybe if we demand everything grown that way. I know there are many fallacies around the growing of organic foods but I haven’t heard a good enough reason not to try growing things organically. It is also shameful the amount of food thrown out each year just to regulate the cost of certain crops.
I am not saying I have the answers or that Obama does, but I know he will try his best to reform the healthcare system. He will find a solution that benefits the American worker because he is representing the people and not the insurance and pharmaceutical companies. The republicans say they have the answer for healthcare, but if they were so good at running the government how come they screwed up so badly for the past eight years. I said in a previous blog that some of those congress people have been in the government too long, I mean people like Orin Hatch and John McCain, who have lived off the government for as long as I can remember. They have government provided health insurance but yet they want to deny the American people this same option.
The Healthcare Reform Bill passed right down party lines, there are 160 amendments that were recommended by the Republicans and adopted by the committee. There was open debate and everyone got to make their point, but one thing I notice about the Republicans is they are very demanding, and function like a gang. You have to be with them totally or that means you are against them. You have to do things their way or they don’t want any part of it. It was the same when they were in power, their strategy is to intimidate. They don’t care the cost to the American people. They've got to have it their way, they must control things. Whether they are in the majority or the minority they must be in charge.
I heard one of the Republicans say they presented a substitute bill for the one that passed committee, his bill according to this committee member met everything—all the presidents guideline, it was just perfect—the perfect bill. Even though the bill presented for voting contained over 160 amendments presented by Republicans, no Republican voted for it. That let me know what is important to the republicans, it was not providing healthcare, it was forwarding their ideology.
The republicans are only interested in pushing their agenda forward. Their economic plan of giving money and tax breaks to the wealthy and hoping that those wealthy people create jobs to help the little people means absolute capitalism with no regulations and everything being a part of the free market--military, schools, healthcare, and cheap undocumented labor. It means radical Christian fanatics, and a woman forfeiting control of her womb, it’s lying about why we go to war and war everywhere until many countries are destroyed and potentially the planet.
When I think of the republicans a particular image comes to mind lately and its nuclear war. In a way it all fits into Darwin’s theory and the Republicans believe they are the strongest and it means wrecking everything in their path.
The country the republicans are fighting to create is scary to me, their base seems to be devout Christians, bigots, and uneducated simple minded people who latch on to the Republican tag lines and repeat them at any debate. The republicans always say they are fighting for the American people, but the Republican Party is not very democratic. They leadership tells the grassroots what to think instead of the other way around. They tell the base you don’t want this and we can’t do this, Democrats are going to take away your right to defend yourself and white people are going to be last--they feed fear and the unknown.
Once the leadership gives an answer or point of view you start hearing other people repeating the same lines and its not necessarily because they watch FOX News even though many do. When they watch so called neutral news agencies, they hear the talking points being driven home by republican strategists and politicians. This way the Republicans at the top stay at the top and their constituency stay poor and ignorant and easier to control.
They have created a real presence in American culture, from FOX News, to countless newspapers, and public personas like Limbaugh, Hannity, Palin and Scarborough. They have countless think tanks and shadow organizations. We laugh at these people and think they are funny or kooky but they speak for a large amount of people, they speak for the almost sixty million people who voted for John McCain.
This battle for healthcare shows me the republicans have no remorse for what they've put the country through over the past eight years and are willing to put the country through it again. Even though the American people want universal health care the republicans are against it because it would take control of the healthcare system away from insurance companies. They see their million dollar donations, perks and kickbacks disappearing. They don’t care one drop about Americans they only care about the legacy of their own families. According to the republicans nothing is right about America, forget about the fact they were instrumental in creating the mess. But if nothing is right why are they still around?
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